Emma Stephenson: the “slave nurse” with the kindest hands that Union soldiers wrote home about

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Emma Stephenson’s Fatal Service at Kennesaw Mountain

Emma Stephenson got her first taste of freedom when Union troops came through Kentucky. Soon after, she chose to join them as a nurse with the 17th Army Corps.

At Kennesaw Mountain in 1864, she worked round the clock in a makeshift hospital set up in Marietta’s Masonic Hall. Wounded soldiers wrote home about her care.

“She treats us with tender hands,” one soldier told his mother. Sadly, Emma caught the same diseases that plagued her patients…

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